Clive Palmer is seen leaving the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Wednesday. Picture: AAP/Darren England

News

Palmer wants judge off the case in mammoth legal battle

by Vanessa Marsh

12th Sep 2018 4:43 PM
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CLIVE Palmer has fronted the Supreme Court today to push for the judge overseeing a mammoth legal battle over the collapse of Queensland Nickel to recuse himself from the case.

Mr Palmer and a number of his co-defendants in the long-running legal battle are calling for Justice John Bond to remove himself from the proceedings, claiming he showed bias in previous court decisions and claiming he could not be seen to be impartial by an outside observer.

The court case, sparked by the 2016 collapse of Queensland Nickel, had been listed for a three-month trial beginning at the end of April next year.

Clive Palmer. Picture: AAP/Darren England

Justice John Bond. Picture: Claudia Baxter

But lawyers and Mr Palmer have asked for the matter to be delisted if Justice Bond recuses himself.

Justice Bond, who froze more than half a billion of Mr Palmer's personal and private assets in a ruling earlier this year, said the court had already made contingency plans if he did recuse himself with another judge available to cover an upcoming three-day hearing and next year's three-month trial.

"It presently strikes me that there is a tension between on the one hand, the high court authority focusing on the importance that justice must be seen to be done and, identifying the equal importance that judicial officers must discharge their duty to sit and they do not accede too readily to suggestions of appearance of bias," he said.